Abilene Christian’s Ply, Brandenburg earn DI national track berths

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Jonathan Ply is making history. A senior on the men’s track and field team at Abilene Christian University, Ply is the first Wildcat to qualify for the NCAA Division I men’s national track and field championships in 32 years.

Ply, who competed in the high jump at the NCAA Division I west region meet, is one of 24 athletes invited to compete in the decathlon at the championships June 8-11 in Eugene, Oregon. His score of 7,857 points this year for fifth place at the Mt. SAC Relays ranks 14th on the list of the 24 national qualifiers.

Ply was one of 13 Wildcats for coach Jerrod Cook in the NCAA west region meet during the weekend at McDonnell Field at the University of Arkansas. The top 48 athletes in each event in the west region were invited to compete, and the top 12 in each event advanced to the national championships to match against the top 12 from the east region for NCAA titles.

One other Wildcat will be joining Ply in Eugene with a history-making feat of her own. Annina Brandenburg, senior from Dusseldorf, Germany, will be making her third straight trip to the NCAA Division I national meet.

After qualifying in the discus in 2019 and 2021 (the 2020 NCAA meet was a casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic), she will close her distinguished ACU career by competing in the shot put this year in Eugene.

Earlier this month Ply and Brandenburg were named winners of the Paul Goad memorial awards as outstanding male and female athletes at Abilene Christian for the 2021-22 school year.

Jonathan Ply

Ply will be the first ACU male athlete to compete in the NCAA Division I national meet since triple jumper James Browne finished 11th in Durham, NC, in 1990. When Brandenburg and shot putter Kayla Melgar qualified in 2019 in Austin, it broke a streak of 30 years since the last ACU female athlete qualified (high jumper Mazel Thomas in 1989 in Provo, Utah).

The latest NCAA Division I national champions from ACU were Cliff Felkins in discus throw and Thomas in high jump – both in 1987 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Ply was one of five ACU men competing here in the west region qualifying meet. He was 25th in the high jump at 6 feet, 10¾ inches, Brady sprinter Jack Marshall was 27th in the 200 meters at 20.97 seconds, Will Harris was 28th in the long jump at 24-2½, Jamal January was 38th in the long jump at 23-9½, and Grant Baker failed to clear his opening height of 16-0½ in the pole vault. January also ran 13.89 in the first round of the 110 hurdles Wednesday to advance to the quarterfinals Friday, but his 13.96 put him 21st on the list for Eugene.

Brandenburg’s opening throw in the shot put Thursday was 55-8¼ in the third of four flights. That put her in third place, but seven other athletes in the final flight surpassed her. Her opener survived to place 10th to earn a spot among the top 12 for Eugene behind the winning 61-6¾ of Jorinde Van Klinken of Arizona State.

Brandenburg wasn’t as fortunate in the discus. Throwing in the third of three flights, the 2022 WAC champion opened with 176-0 which at the time placed her fifth. But after two athletes in the first flight (including ACU freshman Zoe Burleson) exceeded 164 and four in the second flight, all 16 throwers in flight three surpassed 164 as well.

Brandenburg fouled on her second and third attempts and dropped to a non-qualifying 15th place. She appeared to throw well enough on her final attempt to easily climb back into the top 12, but she couldn’t maintain her balance and fell out of the ring to be called for a foul. Van Klinken won again with 208-6.

Burleson threw a respectable 170-4 in the first flight to place 23rd.

Other ACU women in the field events included Ella Antilla in the triple jump (39-10½ for 41st), long jumpers Payton Kirk (19-11¾ for 22nd) and Megan Kirby (19-0¾ for 41st), and Brandenburg in the javelin ( 156-8 for 19th). Kirby also ran 100 hurdles (13.92 for 41st).

Other ACU women in the running events were Briahna Gerlach in 10,000 meters (34:40.88 for 27th after qualifying 48th), Taylor Tolen in 100 and 200, Irene Rono in 5,000 meters (16:38.58 for 26th). Tolen ran 11.57 and 24.20 (43rd) in the first rounds of the sprints and advanced to the quarterfinals of the 100 to run 11.49 for 24th.

Ply’s score of 7,857 at Mt. SAC in his only decathlon of 2022 ranks him third on the Wildcats’ all-time performer list behind Stephen Moore’s ACU record of 8,037 in 1999 and 7,986 by Trafton Rodgers. Ply, a 2017 graduate of Dayton High School in Nevada and former NJCAA decathlon champion at Central Arizona, admits to aiming for the ACU school record.

“I do want to end my college career with 8,000 points,” Ply said. “I’m focusing more on my individual events. If you hit the individuals, the total score will take care of itself.”

A hurdler and jumper in high school and son of a coach, Ply was a five-sport letterman at Dayton and state champion in four events in track and field. He came to ACU in 2019-20, redshirted that year, and placed second in the Southland Conference decathlon in 2021 with 7,182 points. This season he was WAC indoor champion in pentathlon but did not compete at the WAC decathlon earlier this month.

“The training here last year was new to me,” Ply said. “I was new to lifting. It was different from what I was used to. But coming in this case I was ready to get started.”

A back injury and sprained ankle caused him to miss some training time, but he was lowered his hurdle time from 14.4 to 14.14 and jumped at least 22-11¾ for the first time in the long jump.

His personal bests include 11.17 in 100 meters, 49.29 in 400 meters, 4:24.45 in 1,500 meters, 6-11.75 in high jump, 15-9 in vault and 187-9 in javelin.

Ply graduated May 7 from ACU with a degree in kinesiology with plans to become a coach. The 23-year-old hopes to remain in Abilene at least another year to continue training. He has another season remaining of indoor eligibility, but doesn’t expect to take it.

Comments are closed.